Workers Press no. 731

workers press

3,500 AEL

ENGINEERS

LOCKED-OUT

INCORPORA

DAILY ORGAN

FROM STEPHEN JOHNS

MANCHESTER'S largest employer locked workers out of the AEI com- bine's giant Trafford Park factory yesterday. 800 And at AEI Openshaw, workers began a sit-in in defiance of a management to lock them out.

The move, which comes at the start of the second week of the district-wide engineers' shows there is still a powerful pay claim, body within the Engineering Employers' Federation determined to resist a settle- ment. The doors and gates at Trafford Park were prevent 3,500 shop-floor barred and bolted to workers from entering the plant.

Only a handful turned up because of a decision before Easter which taken meetings at mass decided against an occupation.

Sir Arnold Weinstock's AEI has been noted for its hard line action in the local federation and has resisted in particular the demand for a 35- hour week. Today another combine, Guest, Keen Nettlefold, for its tough approach, is expected to also noted open negotiations with workers at the Bredbury steel plant who have been occupying since March 23. Whether this is a genuine approach remains to be seen. One surprise move at Bredbury has been the removal of managing director Geoffrey Wilson.

He is noted for his firm shop-floor tactics.

At the steel works, he was responsible for a productivity deal involving Measured-Day Work, speed-up and redundancies.

A GN Bredbury spokesman, yesterday denied that the move had anything to do with the current dispute. Wilson has been promoted to chairman of the company's N and Midlands bright steel division.

His successor is John Lamb, who is understood to be leading today's negotiations with two local union officials. Lamb was formerly divisional director of Cold Rolling, S Wales. Throughout the NW a total of 6,000 workers are now occupying 11 plants. Workers at Rushton Paxton in Warrington have lifted their sit-in, but are working-to-rule.

SUBSCRIBE TO V

ORPORATING THE NEWSLETTER • WED

ORGAN OF THE CENTRAL COMM

The few workers who turned up out

LONDON

AEI THREAT

TO CLOSE

FACTORY

A MASS meeting of workers from AEl's Century Works in SE London will today discuss the machine shop strike and the threatened closedown of the factory. The strike has been in pro- gress since January and now the electricians have 'failed to agree and they too might join the strikers. The firm, previously man- aged by Elliott Automation, has been threatening to and declare redundancies move the work to Leicester.

TO WORKERS PRESS

• WEDNESDAY APRIL 5, 1972• No. 731 • 4p DAILY ORGAN OF THE CENTRAL COMMITTEE OF THE SOCIALIST LABOUR LEAGUE Sheffield Support SHEFFIELD No. 2 branch of the Amal- gamated Union of Engineering Workers has just passed a resolution condemning the decision of the district committee not to pursue the national wage claim in the district. It says: *This branch calls on the DC to instruct the executive council to institute the claim and call панова support PEne brothers in Manchester and other areas.

We call on the Deto meeting of all members in the district wno nave reacned une stage of tallure- to-agree co-ordinate the action of to mese lactores. The only factory in the area engaged in action at the moment is Davy United, which is threatened with a lock-out mis week. The few workers who turned up outside AEl, Trafford Park, Manchester, watched office staff go in

RAILMEN

TWO MORE SIT-INS

START

WORK-

EXPECTED

TO-RULE

IN MANCHESTER

LOCOMEN'S

Ray leader Buckton yesterday expresse disappointment his mem- bers at British Rail's Stratford

BY AN INDUSTRIAL REPORTER

depor in a london nad startec an unofficial work-to-rule.

JOHN TOCHER,

20 firms and discussions were the had hoped they would of the Confeder- taking place with a number of secretary stand behind the others. of Shipbuilding said. ation and *Our

- DONCY IS

to tr 'Some firms have offered to Engineering Unions, said get united front at on money tomorrow's meeting' yesterday there would be at sette the and holidays, but we have refused Today, the executives of all least sit-ins do because SO we three rail unions

ASCISS

the Greater Manchester hours to be included as well, the increase to it 30m pad BR board can force the ne saler 'Our members are absolutely railwaymen He said settlements had of the justification See page 3 for work-to-rule Convincea been reached with more than story. One calm.

JOIN THE SLL

FORMS P. 11

workers press

3,500 AEL

ENGINEERS

LOCKED-OUT

INCORPORAT

DAILY ORGAN

FROM STEPHEN JOHNS

MANCHESTER'S largest. employer locked workers out of the AEI com- bine's giant Trafford Park factory yesterday. 800% And at AEI Openshaw, workers began a sit-in in defiance of a management to lock them out.

The move, which comes at the start of the second week of the district-wide engineers' pay claim, shows there is still a powerful body within the Engineering Employers' Federation determined to resist a settle- ment. The doors and gates at Trafford Park were prevent 3,500 shop-floor barred and bolted to workers from entering the plant.

Only a handful turned up because of a decision before Easter which taken at mass meetings decided against an occupation.

, Sir Arnold Weinstock's AEI has been noted for its hard line action in the local federation and has resisted in particular the demand for a 35- hour week. Today another combine, Guest, Keen Nettlefold, also noted for its tough approach, is expected to open negotiations with workers at the Bredbury steel plant who have been occupying since March Whether this is a genuine approach remains to be seen. One surprise move at Bredbury has been the removal of managing director Geoffrey Wilson.

He is noted for his firm shop-floor tactics.

At the steel works, he was responsible for a productivity deal involving Measured-Day Work, speed-up and redundancies.

A GKN Bredbury spokesman, yesterday denied to do with the that the move had anything current dispute. promoted to chairman of the Wilson has been company's N and Midlands bright steel division.

His successor is John Lamb, who is understood to be leading today's negotiations with two local union officials. Lamb was formerly divisional director of Cold Rolling, S Wales. Throughout the NW a total of 6,000 workers are now occupying 11 plants. Workers at Rushton Paxton in Warrington have lifted their sit-in, but are working-to-rule.

SUBSCRIBE TO V

ORPORATING THE NEWSLETTER • WEDI

ORGAN OF THE CENTRAL COMMI

The law workers who turned up outa

LONDON

AEI THREAT

TO CLOSE

FACTORY

A MASS meeting of workers from AEl's Century Works in SE London will today discuss the machine shop strike and the threatened closedown of the factory. The strike has been in pro- gress since January and now the alectricians have 'failed to agree and they too might join the strikers. The firm, previously man- aged by Elliott Automation, been threatening to has redundancies and declare move the work to Leicester.

TO WORKERS PRESS

INCORPORATING THE NEWSLETTER • WEDNESDAY APRIL 5, 1972 • No. 731 • 4p DAILY ORGAN OF THE CENTRAL COMMITTEE OF THE SOCIALIST LABOUR LEAGUE Sheffield Support SHEFFIELD No. 2 branch of the Amal- gamated Union of Engineering Workers has just passed a resolution condemning the decision of the district committee not to ursue the national wage clain in the district. It says.

"This branch calls on the DC to instruct the executive re- counci to institute the claim and call support of the Lalidial brothers in Manchester and other areas.

'We call on the DC to Organize a meeting of all members in the district who have reached the stage of failure- co-ordinate the action of to-agree to these factòries.' The only factory in the area engaged In action al tne moment is Davy United, which is threatened with a lock-out answeek. i go in

RAILMEN

TWO MORE SIT-INS

START

WORK-

EXPECTED

TO-RULE

IN MANCHESTER

LOCOMEN'S

leader Ray expressed yesteraay disappointment that his bers at British Rail's Stratford

BY AN INDUSTRIAL REPORTER

depot in E London had started an

TOHN TOCHER

20 firms and the area discussions were hoped they would secretary of thề Confeder- taking place with a number of behind the stand executive, said. 'Our ation of Shipbuilding otners. he policy to try *Some firms : have offered to Engineering Unions, said settle tomorrow's meeting'. yesterday there would be at

LAC

Today, the executives of all nolldays, nut we have deucer least more sit-ins do so because three rail unions discuss. now Greater Manchester the hours to be included as well," force the board

LIC

Cal! area. said. tnelr *50.om pay 'Our members are absolutely offer to the railwaymen. He said convinced of the justification See page 3 for work-to-rule settlements had been reached with more than of the claim.'

FORMS P. 11

JOIN THE SLL

RELEASE JUAN FARINAS

Everyone else must pay for US crisis PAGE 2 Workara Prose, Wednesday April 5, 1972

INTERNATIONAL COMMITTEE OF THE FOURTH INTERNAT

JUAN FARINAS has been jailed. The decision of the New York District Court Judge to reject Farinas' motion for modification of sentence and his return to a Federal prison is a vicious attack against workers' rights and the revolutionary movement.

Farinas, ( a member of the American Workers League (Trotskyist), who has been framed on charges of violating the Selective Service Act, is to continue serving his sentence of two years' imprison- ment in a Federal prison in Danbury, Connecticut.

The motion for modification of sentence asked that Juan be allowed to go into the army, or to work for two years in a court-approved job. His 'crime' is that he dared to distribute anti-Vietnam war leaflets in an army induction centre. The rejection of this motion is fully in keeping with the policies of the Nixon administration. This is to stifle every expression of revolutionary socialist activity against the Vietnam war and the wage freeze, anti-union policies of the Republicans.

Farinas gets two years for expressing his opinions on the war whilst the organizers and perpetrators of the My Lai and Kent State University massacres go scot-free. At the same time the entire Republican administra-

BY A POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT

THE AMERICAN command was yesterday planning massive airborne retaliation against N Vietnam as the S fled before the advancing puppet armies in liberation forces. Hanoi said yesterday that its forces had eliminated 'sledge- enemy hammer blow' against the US 'Vietnamization' Invading forces had eliminated 6,500 S Vietnamese in five days around Quang Tri and Thua Thien.

Another captured Hué. that the reported Vietnam's Third Infantry of Division

LEADING

Japanese ship- 241 Saturday and mutinied building firm is to restrict pro- joined the liberation fighters.

duction to expected fall NeCT CO The National Liberation Front 1970s. in new orders in the Hanoi yesterday broadcast over Hitachi Company Radio, The all S Viet- is to appealing to curtail supertanker production namese army officers and men to exceeding 200.000 dead- act immediately to save them- tons It said they must desert weight at its giant Sakai yard in selves. Japan from six to four per their hand posts, over their weapons to the guerrillas and co- annum. operate with them. Capacity of a new yard being Vietnamese troops were southern- built Kyushu, the in yesterday reported of Quang most Japanese island would be Tri and mustering for city an reduced from eight to four per advance Hué their on annum. fled southwards opponents in confusion.. President of the - company, In a desperate attempt to stem said Takao Nagata. that the the Vietnamese advance, reduction being made in an protected US effort to avoid cut-throat compe- marines, by destroyers standing offshore, among shipbuilders for a tition landed at a point called the smaller number of orders.

Without 'Street Joy' close to Quang Tri city. The N Vietnamese advance has already far beyond the gone and of landing only part the city of Quang Tri is still in

BY JOHN SPENCER

the hands of Saigon troops.

A fourth aircraft carrier, the

USS

'Constellation', was Gut trots PRESIDENT Nixon has the Tonkin way to from further demanded inter- Japan yesterday to reinforce the three already in the area.

national trade negotiations to F-4 from fighter-bombers the 260 restore la healthy trade sur- carriers flew more than strikes in the past 48 hours and and a strong financial plus the intensity bombing was position stepped up yesterday as cloud for the United cover began to break up. States'. The biggest American threat now is that the B-52 heavy He was speaking Monday on stationed in bombers Thailand into law will be unleashed on N Vietnam night after signing Bill which raises the dollar price offensive in an unparalleled to $38 of $35 an since the 'bombing pause' under gold trom President Johnson in 1968.

The White House claims such He described the Bill as departure in is basic point of action necessary to protect Viet- American forces still in working for international econo- mic stability and said his action which have so far nlaved no nan, part in the fighting. yesterday would be followed by US In reality, such a bombing continuing efforts to give offensive "fair is now the only way. businessmen and farmers access' io foreign markets. the US can prevent the collapse "'access' of its Saigon puppet regime.

Such : can only be

TERNATIONAL STATEMENT

tion reeks with the stink of corruption and scandal as the monopolists scramble to gouge the exchequer by buying off sections of the state apparatus.

The court decision, far from deterring any further opposition to the war and the reactionary two-party system, will only stimulate the growing resistance seen in the collapse of the Pay Board and the strike wave to the Nixon regime and put an end to the Republican-Democrat political pendulum.

Farinas' courageous and his principled stand smashed than Nixon's struggle can no more be stooges in Indo-China can halt or defeat the victorious National Liberation Front offensive.

It is not Juan Farinas who is guilty, but the US capitalist class and its state machine, which is, trying to suppress, exploit and conquer the working class everywhere. The International Committee of the Fourth Inter- national adds its protest to the thousands of US trade unionists and students who have supported the cam paign of Juan Farinas and fought this unprecedentedly vicious example of class justice.

The IC urges European and British trade unionists to support this campaign and demand that Farinas be released immediately.

LESS

four any for such at public hall Mujib's 'shoot-on-sight' Dinajpur. months after achieving directive: extremisu aile Lne nationalization Official say *Be careful, Mujibur reports trom noe vendence announced by there deaths, he said It is gramme were eight Rahman, Pakistan, the new Witten one mans DUl On C SPOT Dangla wesl Mujib's sày there were many body that BLaST week plunging towards police shot, seven hotel more Naxalite There is civil war as the Awami demonstrating strikers Maulana Bashani gave who is a Naxalite sayilie League administration and wanes not. Dacca's Inter becomes increasingly • continental Awami League at a rally there are bad hote. demanding pay increases. Dacca Monday. elements, arrest them discredited. He told a 25,000-strony but Kepeated reports have one should be Sheikh Mujibur. Rah- warn one shot reacne• acca Tata Crowel •Sholl di the country. clashes or political Awami League that without a trial has called for involving don't follow Bashani himself assassinations has restoranion the been right course their dream threatened br Alicacis and order the Awami League, whose Jen- vind wil be shattered. countryside and directed Awami Party led by 92- Men who had nothing propagandi shoot Maulana year-old hut 1115 but before edited left has independence Mujib's nephew Dastard were

HOW

wingers) on sight. the most living five-storey accused him con. recent In a speech at Jessore soldiers and Awami houses, Bashani said with the US spiring he attacked reportedly Intelligence sunday. Maying the corruption ol Central Agency and Sess tim Trains saying: "There cannot be supporters on Saturday Bashani also attacked the government

AFTER

ONE

undergo military train- Frank Anthony the or the uncer Act, longest trials in Robert Wilcox, Albert Terrorism which ing in foreign countries history, 13 Two of the Tshangana, Montford presumes be men Arrica s Kadir Hassim and they Mabuto and Surinaravar memoers Cal themselves country's Unity Move- loseph Vusani. Venkatrathnam. prove ment told yester- rists eping had pleaded not nocent found gulity terrorists The they guilty Vorster udy Africa. Delivering the verdict difficult All the made things accused were others, Mogami before making a judge. as possible for the men's found guilty of joining Five Mfolwane Moeing, ment Pietermaritz- - defence, , calling over 100 conspiracy Mbele, Pindise Zimam. witnesses and Mr Justice state burg, Collit Cellan alls Dam Gideon the mainten- said ereancer Dalla. Tane Sonia lac • Lial Out lU ance of law and order in Mahaiana and Nckwiki judgement make expense pro The Africa in furtherance Vimba, were found inevitably take long hibitive. deliver, i feel actual The guilty men were of a common our bose Lille lu govern- recruiting of deode would be arrested Tine

OVOI

Cape • Province, military training the accused in suspense ago to en- They danger He said Transkesburg me also any longer. the court's Transkei. were found would give U1 law an oracı lil lac specific mitting acts republic. reasons or its decision: solllary The other accused later. ment for months before Max Batwini The 13 were charged being formally charged. were Trious ill the expense of. slashed consumption put the LO bakkers baronies businessmen and farmers in other US employers back on their feet of a massive would rise The urgency of Nixon's call for cause Coloreove «unne main centres of capitalism outside the Us and i concessions US. underlines the wave of hostility to Nixon.

the inter- Nixon's is to make Nixon's follows critical character the the rest of the world pay for scentin as Treasury Secretary John Con- he ended the crisis by waging all-out trade wal nally Connally's bility with gold August 15 against Europe and Japan and assistant The capitalists of these coun Volcker, both of raul last ycal have on European action has precipitated a tries are unable to ane

THIS

Japanese capitalism shoulder fundamental crisis in the sphere American trade drive. They are of exchange, because prostrate in the face of Nixon's burden of providing America capitalist threats. balance payments Witi 10 cal surplus. the value of paper currency.

This is the real significance of Nixon had spoken. The monetary crisis now has a the Tory drive into the Common After Market, which is nothing direct impact production more Volcker told reporters that the the dollar devaluation-agreed in top Euroveal turough une growin oratessiot allance monopolists to meet the crisis as level talks December 18 last political situation best they US world. vear-did not solve all tne European and Japanese em. With only seven problems. The next stage, he said, was the presidential election, to help the Nixon is terrified that the shaky to sing their own on trade international using unemployment, Us improve its balance allanss and right- ments. repressive legislation In words, Europe and for him past wing other winning post. crush the threat of revolution and Japan increased un on the monetary maintain their bankrupt system.

employment, loss of markets and

A CADIOSIO

BY AN INDUSTRIAL REPORTER

THE UNOFFICIAL work-to-rule Region drivers began yesterday or the three unions involved in the i This action is an indication that some rail workers are fed up with the prolonged negotia- tions. They are the last major group in the nationalized in- •dustries to have their pay claim (considered by the Tory govern- ment. In London today the executives of the three unions- ASLEF, the National Union of Railwaymen and the Transport and Salaried Staffs' Association—meet to con- sider 'united action'. Talks broke down last week when British Rail refused to increase basic rates • by more than 9 per cent. The so-called 'new offer' was simply a juggling one of the union of the figures, negotiators said. The unions are demanding a 16-per-cent increase. A BR spokesman said com- not dis- muter services were yesterday's work-to- rupted by nie expressed anxiety rule, but about freight services in the Strattord Other branches planning action Shoeburyness, Southend, are Ilford and Colchester. There is also the threat of strike action by Southern Region and London Underground drivers there is satisfactory unless conclusion the negotiations to by next Monday. at Albion MANAGEMENT at the Albion motor works, Scotstoun, Glasgow, is proposing introduce Measured-Day Work. • The scheme will increase basic by £1.50 with a total rates increase of f4 in the first stage of the deal which will include a grading system. The proposal-part of British- Leyland's combine-wide strategy-has been accepted by the shop stewards' committee to recommended meeting of men, probably next week. At present the Albion workers are on a four-day week. AN AMERICAN minister rais- ing 'missionary money for Ulster said yesterday he would like to see all Protestant house- "holders armed. The Rev Paul Lindstrom, a minister of the 'Church of Liberty' (non-denomi- Christian national) at Prospect Heights, Chicago, is one of the organizers of the Friends of N Ireland Com- mittee. This body-formed last month —has about 500 members in and around Chicago. Lindstrom spent Monday in Belfast—his first visit to N Ire- land-seeing Protestant church

BY IAN YEATS

BRITISH industry is in the grip of a 'creeping recovery, according to a special post-Budget sur- vey of 50 firms carried by the Financial out Times. But with industry operat- ing at up to 15 per cent below capacity and no sign of a downturn in unemployment, it is ciear that the 'recovery' does not extend far beyond company ledgers. Although order books are showing a marginal increase, employers have made no changes in their capital invest- ment thus programmes, con- firming the view that new orders will be met chiefly from excess capacity and not extra plant. The ment persises upward moves ‹-to-rule by British Rail's. Easterr prices and costs leaves terday on the eve of talks between export prospects pointing firmly downwards. in the rail pay claim. is still the number Inflation one threat to profit. Since Christ-

OUR INDUSTRIAL CORRESPONDENT

the In- UNIONS will not ne- ment with dustrial Relations Act, gotiate the terms of the government is now their surrender own trying a new approach.' Tory to the govern- Jim Conway ment, Con- This, says says, way, right-wing general will not work. secretary of the Amal- 'How can we ignore gamated Union: of En- the most vicious piece Workers. in gineering of anti-union legislation an article out today. passed this century? How can we forget the But if Conway has his Post Office workers, the own way, they won't municipal, workers, fight it, either., the into long and damaging In an editorial in the strikes the ments attitude, govern- April of issue his union's journal, he re- fers to 'speculation . The AUEW secretary in the recently press stand -soon to again the of about beginning for re-election his to a dialogue hetween the post-is clearly quite and government the capable of forgetting if unions'. not the events them- at least the role selves, He does refer not he and the other AUEW March directly •to the leaders played in them. 10 between meeting Edward Tory premier, 'Does the government Heath the

TUC

and believe that after such General Council, which a programme of attack led

AUEW

president against the workers, the Hugh Scanlon to specu- trade unions will not sit late that the abrasiveness down and talk about between and unions assist we can, government might be keeping the government That would be softened. in power?' he asks. too close to home. Well. the March 10 claim at a nation Conway claims, how- meeting indicates that level. militant- ever, in the Tories believe they 'Our union', Conw sounding that passage, And will. they have goes on, is on "the only subiect the in be posed to a good for their government would dis- belief. policy. incomes cuss with us was AUEW however, the terms of our own After all it was Con- against planning' surrender. The way and the

AUEW

union secretary 'Having tried un- executive who, on the plea for a miners' successfully imple- of of to eve the society is, cold - bloodedly ment an incomes policy strike. strictly academic. the abandoned the fight for "If in public sector this and to divide the move: their Day: liké i plea for sociali members'

BY OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT

leaders, including the Rev Ian to terrorists'. Paislev. Lindstrom made it clear that he wo not concerned that money At a press conference in Lon- would raise might be spent don yesterday on steps on arms. He would stipulate that Cathedral. St Paul's he cash would not go to people who announced his organization might use arms for offensive pur- would aid Protestant victims of poses. (1) attacks. The Catholics, said, he felt that But he "Protestants already are receiving aid from should be armed so that they are America'. better able to defend themselves He would also seek to expose when the deteriorates. situation Catholic individuals as we feel it will as the months Church 'giving aid and comfort go by? 444. Workers Press, We its pace •has quickened, mas driving up the median forecast for unit cost increases a full * per cent ip three months.

The Tories have fought in- flation through a conscious policy of encouraging unemployment.

Unemployment is the very called tocover the present so called 'recovery' in the least surprising therefore that the 'Financial Times' finds the prospect of any upturn 'discouraging'. Ultimately unemployment is likely rise close to the to 3 million forecast by Chrysler's UK chief last week. If anything has undergone a recovery recently, it is profits.

Since the Budget, businessmen expect the return on capital to improve, there is jubilation at the new system of corporation national government, so be it, he says. n', Conway In other words, if the on record Tories should happen osed to any to fall from power, despite our efforts, we The ever, is 'not would hand our mem- planning'. stock bers over lock, secretary's and barrel to right-wing planned Labour. of course, Fortunately Conway's million members • sounds are by no means in the for socialist same frame of mind •Pross, Wednoaday April 5, 1972 PAGE 3 tax and satisfaction with the Value Added Tax. Describing the 'recovery, the 'Financial Times' noted in an editorial yesterday: 'Profits for many sectors Have risen and there are hopes that this trend will continue The principal obstacle, accord- ing to the survey, is inflation and the Tories will be under heavy pressure to hold the line against inflationary wage settle- ments and to continue its policy of encouraging employers to shed • labour. Their hand has been strength- ened now that the Industrial Relations Act can be brought to bear with full force • on opposition from the trade unions.

As the slump worsens, bank- ruptcies among small firms must go on. And at the best big business will gain only a short respite from the twin policies of rationalization and raising productivity. BANK pay talks are to be held tomorrow. If they break down, union leaders will agree to their 30-per-cent claim going to arbitration. The claim-presented last month by staff associations and by the National Union of Bank Employees-has already been rejected outright by the Feder- ation of Bank Employers. ABOUT 200 men out of the 1,000-strong work force at the Southampton Ford plant have been laid off 'until further notice. In a circular to employees, the company says the lay-offs are necessary because of a strike at one of the suppliers at Willenhall, Staffordshire. The Southampton plant makes vans and truck cabs.

ALL TRADES UNIONS

ALLIANCE

MEETINGS

LIVERPOOL: Wednesday Aprll 5, 8 p.m. 'The Swan', Lundon Road.

"Tory attack on unions; engineers' struggle'. SHEFFIELD: Thursday April 6, 7.30 p.m. New White Lion, The Wicker, Sheffield. 'Engineers' pay claim and the Industrial Relations Act: Halt the retreat.

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PAGE & Workers Preca, Wel soday Apoll ! Have you read the Draft Man the national conference at Bir views on the document in a l The Manifesto calls for the t a revolutionary party. This | understood throughout the v students, the unemployed anc their views on the Manifesto.

If you want a copy of the Dr your local ATUA branch. To festo discussion.

BRIAN GAVIN

Victimized by employers all over • the NW for his militant role in glassworkers' the Pilkington strike in St Helens. He has been for 19 on the dole months together with 70 other ex-glass workers. I think one of the main things that the Manifesto shows is that militancy is not enough. At one time I used to think that rank- and-file activity-just getting to- gether at the base-could achieve what the working class is fighting for. But it's the issue of leadership the final that is taken in section of the Manifesto that for me is the most important message.

get down to Workers have to some serious reading and try to understand Marxism and what it There is no short way means. round this problem. This is what impressed me about the Socialist Labour League as well. We were in a big dispute at Pilkington's and a leading member said: 'Well the League is an organization that will ride this all the whatever train way, happens.' Now that stuck in my mind and its true. Of course we had a lot of other organizations around us at the time. I learned a lot about the International Socialists for example-and this throws some light on this leadership question as well. The IS would come round and give us advice on how to do this that and the other-all very practical. But then after we had through that struggle and been victimized, they all got we on-the had moved scene changed. Is this leadership? How develop from workers can leadership if this is the kind of approach? They came back recently when the Millingford strike near Helens was on. They said: "Ah, that you re mistake was your didn't occupy. In other words they have got involved with another form of struggle. It's in fashion to them— They they learn nothing. the basic question don't ask what are we occupying for, what is the aim, to win a concession, or to take the power? Build a that can take the movement that is. power, In other words, they sit on the working class. coat-tails of the When the Manifesto says it's going to build a REVOLUTION- ARY PARTY—in capitals-this is a most important statement.

a while in the was Communist Party when I worked down the pit. The CP, of course, never trains you in any way. They just go along with any old militancy and of course this is what I thought it was all about.

When I left the pit and was Pilkington's, virtually became non-political in the active sense-this is how the Party left you. Then came the strike and Tory These the government. experiences forced me to start thinking.

REVOLUTIONARY

Have you read the Draft Manifesto adopted by the All Trades Unions Alliance at the national conference at Birmingham last November? Have you expressed your views on the document in a letter to the Workers Press?

The Manifesto calls for the transformation of the Socialist Labour League into a revolutionary party. This historic and vital task must be fully discussed and students, the unemployed and people in the professions are invited to express If you want a copy of the Draft Manifesto write to the Workers Press or contact your local ATUA branch. Today we present further correspondence in the Mani- Brian Gavin, victimized by employers for his militant role One of the biggest lessons period has been the way the the We leadership has actea.

LADOUT

know their record in the Com Market te rost manies abus. mon remetened and on formed they soave virtually coalition would like Lories. But would take that is the more recent example- Budget. here we nave une govern- preparing to go ment nate working class. The the against of that. What buoser wick is ball Wilson say- does Warn the working class? No he praises and Tax. Barber's entorts Value Added attacks on of This is the real treachery—he really agrees with wake up Sometimes you can and you just want to stay in bed dole so long atter being But then vou think-where can | go? There is no escape from this struggle. I am confident that the work- fight. Look: ing cass Will ockport now: tl • whole

TOWI

nior be in occubanon l cac ic was We have to have a party that thinks for the working class and down how the working class lays is the Manitesto Car al 1 AC programme of that party. All Trades Unions Alliance at ber? Have you expressed your essions are invited to express the Workers Press or contact er correspondence in the Mani- loyers for his milltant role

JIMMY BOYLAN

Another veteran of the Pilking- ton struggle. Like Brian, he has been on the dole, victimized, for hanta fee married and *estincil children. house rent is f4 a week and he gets £16.05 from the state to keep himself and his family.

I find it hard to criticize the Manifesto. It sounds a bit daft, but I just agree with everything it says. I began in politics really just cynical about unions. You know, every time you had a just case you met a stone wall. There was always some reason they couldn't and Pilkington's back was the biggest example of this.

lads, You hardly blame can after this kind of treatment. for they want to get just thinking out of the union-for saying that nothing could be worse than this. What the Manifesto raises is why the unions are like this- because of the ideas of the men that lead them. Then it presents the question: 'How do we change them?' Now this is really the centre of it. It faces you. You just can't sit around and be cynical: that would be failing. The remedy is there. It lies with you. This is m Jimmy Boylan, another veleran of the Pllk what the Manifesto says. The hardest thing to get over to workers is this: They say with a lot of truth that one party is as another. They say as bad really it doesn't matter who is in power, though they might vote Labour. This disgust with politics is where the so-called Labour Party has led the working class. The Charter and the Manifesto should be the beginning of the fight to change this because you can say to workers, 'Well what do you about this programme'. think Then you have to convince them that here is a movement in the All Trades Unions Alliance that will fight for it and that means business. There will be a lot of oppor- tunity now: For example, the issue. I believe the Tory rent Bill is going to double rents.

Well I know I just can't pay and there are over 1 million un-

PAUL THOMPSON

A 24-year-old married teacher, a baby-girl. He lives in with Leicester. As a teacher, I witness a day- in, day-out process of the attack capitalism-through middle- class teachers—on the rights of working-class children. the Inevitably I participate in the process myself, in schools which exist primarily condition to children into accepting uncritic- ally their humble places in the capitalist order of things.

It is quite clear that, despite claims fashionable the educational theorists, bourgeois children's experiences of boredom schools- and frustration which often result in "pointless' only be alleviated violence-can by the; overthrow of capitalism which degrades all human life.

Also as a teacher, I come into contact with many school-leavers whose prospects of employment

M. J. WILSON

Rolls-Royce worker, Ansty, Coventry. I think the Common Market decision is all wrong. A vote or ballot should have been taken by the public. Obviously there will be more unemployment, increases in of living prices and the cost generallv and wages will be un- able to cope with this. Unem- ployment supplementary bene- fits are already becoming more difficult to obtain. Prices are increasing now because of the economic situation throughout the world and I don't think this system.

the capitalist system, can cope.

this Tory We must get government out and a Labour government in (without wing Labourites who is mon Market issuer to carry with the Tories on the Com- of the Pllkington struggle employed like me. So we will get the means test. Now I have been talking about this to the older people: They remember in the 1930s when they used to send the man into the house. He would say sell this and sell that, like as if you were slaves. Now they are not going to do this with me and I'm sure I speak for the rest. Like the Manifesto says-all the building industry and the land should be taken off the people that own it now. It should be given to the working class. There are hundreds of issues like this — prices, the Common Market, housing: and health— where we will just be slaves for the monopolies. The 1 Manifesto is the document where we can take every one of these up. It's a platform for banding people together in one revolutionary movement. are virtually nil under this Tory Unless the working government. class is rapidly galvanızed by a truly socialist leadership, there 1s a very real danger will fall prey to fascist people forces in our society, thereby un- wittingly to. the cantributing smashing of their own class.

their tender, already, even at blame several age, immigrants for unemployment, defend imperialist brutality in Ulster and condemn strikes, etc, line thus falling hook, sinker for the lies and distortions of the capitalist media. Thus I support wholeheartedly the Draft Manifesto of the All Trades Unions Alliance and the Young Socialists and the Socialist Labour League in their fight to defeat this illegal Tory govern- and in their struggle to ment a revolutionary conscious- build ness in and leadership for the oppressed and divided youth and working class. out socialist policies. This is the only way. agree with the Charter of Basic Rights. especially the right to work. Our family have experience of unemploy- ment, there being three of us on the dole at the same time at one period. One is still un- employed. We should fight to get rid of the Industrial Relations Act.

This fetters the trade union and is for the movement benefit of employers in defeat- ing the working class. I think the union leadership should be removed and re- placed by people who truly represent the working class.

Until this is done we are going to be sold out right down the line. I believe in building a revolu- tionary party as this system has outlived its usefulness.

West German Chancellor, Willy Brandt.

After a lapse of eight years, the USSR is expected to sign a new trade agreement with W Germany which includes W Berlin. In the past the Kremlin has always refused to include the divided city in any trade agree- ment and this has been a major stumbling block. The new moves reflect an almost indecent haste on the In Colombia 70,000 primary school teachers have ioined the strike started a month ago by teachers in secondary and technical schools. part of the Soviet Union to ob- ratification tain of the two treaties of reconciliation due for final signatures in May.

Russia appears to want to rush through the latest trade agreement in order to strengthen the hand of W German Chan- cellor Willy Brandt against mounting Christian Democrat opposition to ratification of the two other treaties. The trade pact could well be The strike is being led by a national joint strike committee of the four teachers' unions. In Bogota 22 provincial and the capitals, local strike committees are organizing the stoppage.

It means that almost 4 million children are not going to school and many of them have organ- ized demonstrations in solidarity with their teachers. The strike, which has been de- clared illegal by the Ministry of Labour, comes in the middle of the campaign for local and pro- vincial government. The Minister of Education has • declared that teachers' salaries will not be paid. The FEDOBE, the biggest teachers' union, has condemned the jalling of lour of its mem- Barranca Bermeja and bers in six in the department of the Huila province. President Miguel, Pastrana, signed before the reconciliation treaties come before the Bundes- tag. More trade with the Soviet Union is one of the benefits the Bonn government has said willi flow from the 'goodwill treaties and it is obviously felt that there is nothing like proving it in advance. The change of heart by the Stalinist leaders over W Berlin mirrors the strength and urgency of their internal crisis.

with his eye on the election, is trying to cool the situation by stating that he is not opposed to co-opting more teachers onto the committee for reforming the academic statute-the low gov- erning education organization.

There are great dangers that the strike leadership will be by such swung overtures. one of the main de- Although mands of the teachers is for a 40 per cent increase in wages, to keep up with the rapid pace of inflation, the union leaders have put great stress on the nationalistic slogan: 'A better future for Colombia'. The government has claimed that it lacks funds to cover an additional outlay of about $10m a year. opposed to It is not more 'teacher participation' as long as the majority of teachers are on the bread-line. Workers Press, W The Russian press is show- ing concern about the way justice is applied in some parts of the country. The Soviet government daily 'Izvestia' has printed two accounts of justice being applied either ineffectually or arbitrarily in the country. In one case, in Kiev, the law to catch took nearly three years up with a man who illegally of a house, occupied part although he never moved from the spot. in Alma-Ata, police But lieutenant dismissed from his post within days of occupying a flat to which he believed he had a legal right. In the first case, Kuzma Cher- nysh was dissatisfied with his living conditions so he moved the house where his into widowed daughter lived with her two children. The other half of her house in Ukrainian capital's Podol the district was occupied by her two sisters-in-law, whom Chernysh drove out by making their life unbearable. The Podol consists mainly of small old houses, often with a tiny garden, unlike most Euro- pean Soviet cities where people tend to live in large blocks of flats. Chernysh turned off the water, disrupted the electricity supply and cut down all trees in • the yard, except the pear trêe which he killed by pouring paratin on it, 'Izvestia' said. The two sisters turned to the But when officials authorities. arrived to investigate their com- plaints, Chernysh simply refused them in. to let an official came, Finally, when accompanied by two police offi- Chernysh complained they cers, had stolen a large sum of money and a gold watch. The complaint was found to be untrue, but meanwhile Chernysh broke into the other part of the house and removed one of the women's belongings. 'Izvestia' reported the story last September, noting that it had taken place two and a half years previously and the two sisters, who eventually left the house, continued to lodge com- plaints.

LEON TROTSKY

Available from 186a Clapham Hi • Press, Wednesday April 5, 1972 PAGE 5 But their case was passed from one office to another until they were referred back to people who had already dealt with it.

Two years after Chernysh moved into the sisters' quarters, a local court established that he had no right to live there, but Chernysh continued as before.

The newspaper criticized local officials for their reluctance to investigate further and take proper action. However, six months later, 'Izvestia' reported, a criminal case had been prepared against Chernysh and the officials who dealt with the case were repri- manded. The other case, which took in the capital of Soviet place Kazakhstan, showed the reverse —officials exceeding their powers and taking hasty decisions with- out proper investigation.

Senior Lieutenant Gennadi Markushin, lived in one who room with his wife and two chil- dren, heard about a flat which had been empty for six months, and his superiors in the police force made an application for it on his behalf. accommodation officials Local confirmed he could move into the flat and told him not to hesitate, promising to give him the rele- vant document establishing right of tenancy later. days later, Ten a woman knocked at his door with a piece of paper asserting her right to the flat. Markushin refused to move and the affair went before the local court. Markushin was ordered out and dismissed from the police force because of his "illegal' tenancy. When a 50-page dossier of documents and correspondence relating to the case had been collected, it was found that Markushin was guilty of nothing.

He was reinstated in his former post and given a three-roomed flat. The real issue was official 'failure to fulfil promises, broken guarantees and, finally, red tape roughness. The Soviet Union suffers from a chronic housing shortage and abuses of the system are usually subject to strict punishment.

IN DEFENCE OF THE

REVOLUTION

from New Park Publications ham High Street, London, SW4.

PAQE 6 Workers Prose, Wednoaday April 5, 1972 In preparation for the Fourth Congress of the Inter- national Committee of the Fourth International, the Central Committee of the Socialist Labour League are publishing the four main documents of the Inter- the split with the national Committee covering French Organisation Communiste Internationaliste.

Fourth International and

DOCUMENT 3

question of principle.)

USSR

"The defence of the

CONTINUED

coincides for us with the prepara- world tion Only those methods are accept- not conflict with able which do of interests the the revolution. Declaration of the Central Com- The defence of the USSR is con- nected world socialist mittee of the International Com- to the the same way that Organization (For the revolution in Reconstruction of the Fourth a tactical task is connected to a task. sub- International) A tactic Is Sudicell ordinate to a strategic goal and not in any way contradict does it.? The offensive against In this sense, the United Front the workers' united the Toluli socialist revolution which front and its meaning prepares for as a way of mobiliz- ing the proletariat. The trumped strategic line in the sense that it against the OCI lead to a whole is always (that is, independent of the workers offensive against relationship of circumstances, United Front. forces, tactical considerations in The workers United Front had word) the strict sense of the already been a point of disagree- present in a revolutionary policy

OCI

and the different between ment o Course the IC. But for the cal forms without which it would

SLL

within seemed to

SLL,

the differences oniy be empty principle of united workers (brought up ('government be on one France the October 24 docu- organizations' in today: again in United Front is based ment) that the workers nartv while the OCI calls the unions' in the United tactic' on a 'strategy'. States, slogan of 'a Labour of To counterpose strategy defence of the working class' in tactics as absolutes is to ignore England, slogan of 'a break with it is so much the dialectic that and with a homo- the coalition Of the question of. coliser social-democratic govern- terms strategy and tactics are not Germany). they are geared ment in interchangeable; The OCI's the opposition to of revolution- to different levels

SLL,

implicit policy only politics. But strategy ary explicit in the October 24 text. tactics which through exists therefore not semantic At the its expression. same lunc quarrel. meaning each tactical move has No, the United Front, is of general part only as the SLL says, simply a tem- strategy. porary relationship between mass Marxist When speak, ' in parties, win the we in order to terms, of a strategical slogan, masses to the Communist Party.

which under siogan To reduce the United Frion to mean different forms (tactics) is a con- this not the conception 1S stant factor in the revolutionary Lenin and Trotsky the

SLL

as For example, the neces- struggle. falsely claims. At best it is the defend the social con- conception of Zinoviev, or rather of the proletariat a caricature of it, a reflec- quests pale Revolution and by the October Zinoviev tion of the way ex- controlled today pressed the policy of the Com- its extension, the bureau- and threatened by munist International. of Transitional cracy. The axis strategy and Programme is the mobilization But for Marxists, the To the the proletariat to overthrow tactics are relative terms.

bourgeoisie. Front The United that that the extent say Fourth 'slogan' of this programme is at line of the strategical the same time central to it. What International is the fight for pro- is involved is the mobilization the defence of letarian revolution, only a tactic the whole class, its unity based on Soviet Union is the its political independence against from this objective. following of the It the defence common enemy. Trotsky. said on concrete expression of the start- Union (while showing the Soviet point of revolutionary that this defence is a major ex- ing pression of the programme of the policy the Communist Manifesto of 1847; class against class. And this policy takes the form of the United Front of all organizations of the working class under conditions where the work- ing class is organized and con- trolled by distinct organizations.

As the text of the OCI Sep- tember 1969 document states: 'The policy of class struggle is identical to the strategic lines of the united class front of workers' parties and organizations. It is alien to "peaceful co-existence" parties between the traditional and organizations of the working class and the revolutionary van- guard which builds the revolu- tionary party. It is impossible to build the revolutionary party without concretely defining at policy which each stage, a opposes the class as a class to the bourgeoisie, its state and its building Without government. the revolutionary party it is im- possible to fight for the united class front for the workers and peasants government, for the de- struction of the bourgeois state and for workers' power. This conclusion perfectly sums up Trotsky's conception on the United Front relation In to Germany threatened by tascism and in France after the begin- nings of the upsurge of the pro- letariat in the united demonstra- tion February 12 1934: 'Why are the soviets necessary in the struggle for power?

The answer to this question is the is the following: as the union elementary form of the United Front in the economic struggle so the soviet is the highest ex- pression of the United Front under conditions where the pro- letariat is entering into the period of the struggle for power.

(And Trotsky, Leon now 'Collected Works', Volume III): 'The natural apparatus of the United Front in the days of battle is the proletarian repre- deputies of sentation, the the of factories and shops, the workers' districts and the unions, the soviets' (It is France's turn.

International! For the Fourth March 1934). opposed to this The SLL is conception of the United Front by criticizing the OCI policies during May-June general the strike of 1968. The October 24 text includes this sentence which deserves to be preserved for 'The posterity: leaders of the OCI trailed behind the working class, restricting the political scope of the strike by demanding a central strike com- mittee. This complete was a evasion of the political responsi- bilities of a revolutionary leader- ship!' Thus, to the profound dialec- ticians of the SLL, the national strike committee was not a poli- This is a con- tical question. fession which reveals the mean- ing of their hostile indifference to the Popular Assembly of Bolivia, the absence of any reference, in a text which claims to begin with the world class struggle, to the formation of workers' coun- cils in Gdansk in December 1970.

the heaped on the Irbid scorn Soviet. Were the strike committees merely formed for immediate de- mands? Was this then the whole character of the general strike to the extent that it was not given a governmental 'formula'? No. the general strike, 'the sharpest form of the class struggle' as Trotsky said, demonstrates 'the impossibility of separating the economic and political elements' as all those who are supposed to be Marxists know ever since Rosa Luxemburg it in wrote 1905. The general strike was in- herently political because its demands led directly to the fight capitalist against the govern- ment and because the degree and form of the mass mobilization of working posed the question class power. As a political battle, strike could the general not achieve its goal unless the illusion general strike that the was enough in and of itself to win and unless was overcome governmental solution. a road to struggle for power the was opened up. All the bureaucracies linked to the bourgenisie blocked this solu- The fight for a national tion. central strike committee was the political fight par excellence. at the heart of the general strike, because it was a fight for this by centralizing the solution strength of the working class in bourgeois struggle against the state. The words 'in struggle' must not be forgotten and this is why the centralization of the strike committee born in this struggle: a step towards workers' corncils.

elements of the United Front, was the concrete form of the perspective of a workers' govern.

of united government ment, a workers' organizations. the SLL leadership, But not understanding content with dialectic nothing about the of mobilization in the the mass general strike had another solution-a CP-CGT government and not a workers' government if government. Or rather the a CP-CGT govern- formula of could considered ment be synonymous with 'workers gov- ernment,' Socialist then the Party, the CGT-FO, the FEN are workers' not considered organi- zations. The SLL has not yet written thig. What then does the 'preferential' choice of the Stalinist bureaucracy over the reformist bureaucracy mean? Have not both of them gone over to the bourgeois order? Or is this a new analysis of Stalin- ism-not so new at that, for it has already been exposed in the theory and practice of the Pablos and Mandels who said that Stalinism, definitively, and despite its despite its crimes, counter-revolutionary aspects was 'delegation' of the only political the proletariat. This discussion must be con- tinued and is related to a number of other political oscillations in the SLL: its idealization of the leadershop of the North Vietnam- Communist Party and the ese

NLF,

its serious uncertainties about the political evolution in Czechoslovakia where on the eve of the invasion, they gave the same importance as the demand for the withdrawal of the War- saw Pact troops from Czechoslo- vakia, its discretion about the development of political revolu- tion in Poland and its refusal to the unity see of the workers struggles in the USSR, China, and the Eastern Europe against bureaucracy with the struggle in the capitalist countries.

This discussion will, also clarify the meaning of their criticism— which may seem minor and tac- tical — about the slogan of 'a of Single candidate workers during orgazations' the presi- dential elections. This criticism shows once again the SLL's indif- ference to facts. The OCI is criti- denounced cized for not having the Social Democrats who refused call on the second ballot to for a vote for Duclos. The French working class has enough well- founded accusations the against reformist leaders without having Duclos invent them: was to eliminated in the first ballot. To make everything clear — we are dealing once again with a tactical application of the strategy of the United Front-this is what the position of the Trotskyists was during the presidential elec- tions: 'After the fall of De Gaulle the perspective of a working class solution to the government and of the regime necessitated devel- opment of great struggles by the proletariat. This could only emerge from the United Front of political labour and organiza- tions which had called for a "No" vote in the referendum. A single candidate of workers' organiza- tions meant that confronted with the bourgeoies parties, proposing a candidate of a government of workers' organizations. united Immediately all the leaders of the workers' organizations and parti- Socialist Party and cularly the the Communist Party managed to disrupt the unity established for a moment in the "No" vote on The candidate the referendum. Deferre - supported by Mendes- France popped up as if out of a magician's The CP before hat. Duclos forward putting as candidate demanded "the elabo- ration of a common programme" as a condition for a common candidate of "the left". The "pro- concerns of the CP grammatic" supported the who bourgeois Mitterand 1965 candidate without any concern for a "com- mon programme" barred the road much the Deferre just as as candidacy to a united candidate "left" of workers, not of the The fight for the organizations. workers United Front, the prole- tarian front against the voluntary and deliberate division that the and the CP Socialist Party imposed on the working class meant the development of a poli- tical campaign around the theme: workers' single candidate organizations against the bour- geois candidates. (...) 'But the programme? Wasn't this necessary to the single candi- of workers organizations?

date What had become of it? In these precise circumstances, the devel- opment of a programme of a gov- workers' ernment of organiza- tions flowed from this candidacy.

The fight for the defeat of the May-sumo 1868, the French workers on General Strik bourgeois candidates gave a class content to the single candidate of workers' the organizations that revolutionary organizations had a duty to develop.' (Stephane Just), 'Defence ot 'I rotskyism'.

To conclude We are arriving at the end of this exposition. Its purpose has out the real dif- been to bring ferences, behind the petty man- the blatant falsehoods oeuvres, and verbal terrorism. These disagreements are serious They demand a and deep ones. clear discussion that the OCI is not in the least afraid to hold publically before the interna- tional workers vanguard. As the culminating point in its OCI the SLL charges against the leadership states that the capitu- had spontanetity lation to reached the point in this organ- ization where it did not even have a general secretary!

say about the What can we nerve and capitulation to spon- taneity of a party like the Bol- shevik party which dared to lead the proletarian revolution to vic- and eithere secret without a political even office? This would be ridiculous-it is obvious that if democratic cen- tralism is an integral part of the revolutionary party, the forms of the organization of the leadership is not a principled issue and the existence of general secretaries as absence, is well as their not a related guarantee-if it was not something more serious. to In the same paragraph the OCI is taken up for not the seeing Md ers on General Striko: at no tmo aci lador 'Fourth International truly as existing'. This is backhanded way of attacking the OCI's posi- tion that we must fight for the Fourth reconstruction of the International broken up as politically centralized force inter- nationally by the Pabloite liquida- tionists. Therefore, on the one hand the revolutionary party exists by metaphysical itself, timeless a category, waiting to meet the class struggle and whose nature depends on whether or not one one has attributes proclaims or deemed necessary supremely to its functioning (a general secre- tary for example). On the other hand there is the 'objective' proletariat, its struggle, its general strikes which 'political'. In defence of are not amendment the Octo- the Essen ber 24 document states that: 'the for dialec- fundamental struggle tical materialism must be con- ducted against all the enemies of and developed in the Marxism fight the against spontaneous consciousness of the working class'. The dialectic is most certainly Independently misused. fact that the idea of a pure pontaneous consciousness of the working class is an absurdity: the conception--completely false-of proletariats consciousness at any historical moment is result, this sentence sums up a whole between the construc- relations of the revolutionary party tion (this is the fight for dialectical materialism!) and the movement of the class. The revolutionary party is not outside of or against the move- ment of the working class. The el leadership advance a soclalist programi construction of the revolution- proceeds from ary party whole development of the class struggle; based on the struggle of the proletariat, but it is not an automatic product of it. It only and only be built as exists can a conscious activity. Marxism is 'the conscious ex- of an unconscious pro- pression cess'. The revolutionary party is organized form of the conscious expression in the class struggle, but the very conditions of the proletarian revolution give it the decisive role in accom- plishing the historic tasks of the proletariat. Marxism, method of the prole- the unity of tarian revolution, theory and practice in the con- of the revolutionary struction party and expressing the histori- cal interests of the proletariat is contrary to each of the limited moments in the formation of the proletariat's class consciousness as a class of bourgeois society but goes beyond them by unify- ing the whole process involved in forming the proletariat's con- and ultimately sciousness determining it. This truth has been known since the Communist Trot- Manifesto without which sky's sentence on 'the instinctive tendency of the proletariat to re- build society on communist foundations' would only be a utopian formula. As S. Just pointed out in 'In Defence of Trotskyism': 'con- sidered as a historical organic process, the formation of the proletariat's class conscious- ness is drawn from the analysis of the development of the class struggle and end to puts an metaphysical discussions about cal problems class brought in consciousness struggles pushed to the for the from the outside as well as those problems of the strugg the class about the self-proclaimed van- these guard'. power, policy into a

SLL

The dualism that the through the break with only and between the party creates national Committee is the as root of its in- the class is at the donment of the comprehension of the period that the Fourth International.

of the dynamic we are living in, of world prole- Responsibly, of the advance pro- socialist revolution all tarian selves to pressed in the General Strike of and militants this 1968. political May-June in the International Committee bi in Czechoslovakia. in ticularlv to the revolution the formation of the Irbid soviet, leadership, to its in the formation of workers coun cause of the special place the Baltic, in the forma- SEL in the formation of t cils in of the Popular Assembly. tion We say responsibly: th inevitable subjectivity is The is at the crossroads. mechanical accompanied by of organization, of We are told that the obiectivism. character does years of the "post-war boom' were good intentions. development unfavourable to the defined organizations of Marxist theory (one wonders The place the SLL h exist. how the Transitional Programme the British class struggle wi of developed the years Trotskyist organizatio was as a defeat and what profound SLL is taking the path of a said when he with Trotskyism Trotskv meant that the Fourth International was exist outside of the Fourth born out of the deepest defeats!)

national. but that the 'new conditions' are construct it favourable to us. taking and obiectivism struction. Subiectivity has linked together indisolubly were In case, any of the the methodological roots for the struggle the of Pabloism within growth of the Fourth Internationa Today the Fourth International. international the

SI.I.

leadershin is paying linked to the world strug price for its refusal to make a the proletariat, Pabloism and real assessment of fight for the construction of its origins which is impossible revolutionary its own without analysing pression in the history, relating without within sistance and reconstructing the problems of liquidation as a Tro own Fourth International to the con- órganization. of the revolutionary firmly, political clarificatio struction Darty in England. the interests ternational But this is automatic. not to of its programme. Today because of precise politi- that the class The International es pushed to the forefront must meet in plenary earliest oblems of the struggle for the possible tendencies develop the participation of al logic, whose ber organizations es h the break with the Inter- reply to the legitimate l Committee is the aban- Comrade Lora. nt of the programme of The real flight fro problems, the amal gross manoeuvres can onsibly, we address our- There must be an the organizations false prestige of leac ilitants affiliated with the like everybody-have ational Committee but par- tical errors and have .

SLL:

to There must actions. to its militants be- treat from the discus of the special place of the all the sections of • the formation of the IC.

national Committee, say responsibly: the SLL questions that the cla he crossroads. The position requires the Trotsk organization, its political ment to resolve. ter does not depend on We say, in any cas Politically un- discussion will take do not one has the power to The place the SLL holds in the In any case, itish class struggle was won sented by the rotskyist organization; the Committee, the cor taking the path of a break Fourth Interna the 'rotskyism which does not programme will be pi utside of the Fourth Inter- the fight to recon al, that is the fight to re- Fourth International It is thus preparation of the Fc its own de- national Conference initiative of the associatir Committee because the ing to the decisions ‹ for the reconstruction conference all the o1 Fourth International is an and groups who fig process organically programme of the to the world struggle of revolution. the conscious repeat: For We or the construction of the intend to defend the ionary_party finds its ex- of the Fourth Inter n in England in the re- is a common demand e within the SLL to its national Committee m quidation as a Trotskyist soon as possible. we political clarification is in The fourth document terests of the Fourth In- cussion, statemen Socialist Labour Lea onal and in the defence tomorrow.

PAQE 8 Workers Press, Wednesday April 5, 1972 We are reprinting here articles by Cliff Slaughter which appeared in Workers Press on October 7 and 8, 1969. They explain the political background to the Labour government's dispatch of troops to the province in the summer of that year.

They have a particular relevance today to the events sur- rounding Heath's declaration of Direct Rule.

PART 3

IN THE FIRST part of the government party make a few speeches about the North this article, the present and the need for unity of the situation in Northern nation 'in the long run'!

Ireland was traced to But this trick, of seeming to Unionist the (Tory) represent Irish independence as conspiracy, beginning in a way of keeping the people's allegiance, will not work any 1912, to prevent national longer: independence by armed The more the struggle force and terrorism. against the government in the South alongside the grows Sir Edward Carson and the violent clashes in the North, Northern Ireland capitalists, the more the working class sees that its traditional 'nation- by supported the Tories, alist' representatives their use succeeded in preserving their nationalism only as a cloak for interests by partition- their class interests. own ing the six 'Ulster' counties It is in the interests of the from the South and North- workers of Northern and Southern Ireland West. to unite against their ow n bosses, Now, in 1969, the 'old' Unionist and 'nationalist, questions have come up in British imperialism against which they defend: that means violent forms. History can- workers' to aim at a united not be cheated. In the 20th and small farmers' republic, a century, the age of imperial- Socialist United Ireland. ism, only the working class For capitalists, North the and the socialist revolution and South, this is the great threat. solve the problems of can national independence, demo- They want the present con- nection with Britain, ( because cratic demands and the land they have no real economic in- in backward countries. dependence from British capi- tal and strength of their no In Northern Ireland, only a own to keep down the working working class, socialist pro- class. gramme, with the working class This is what has just been organized for independent ac- the North. The proved Marxist in tion behind party, Unionists' 'Special' police and can finish the historic task of forces in the North, even when ending the rule of the Union- backed by the thousands of capitalist ists, representatives 'irregulars', armed Orange of imperialism. Reformists and and could keep 'law not middle-class tendencies cannot order', and 7,000 British troops do it. have been called in. In the Republic, the South, The British Labour govern- aborted form of national an ment used its troops to defend independence, with various capitalist property and to de- constitutional modifications fend the Conservative care- since 1920, was established.

takers of British imperialism in Since then the Irish native Ulster. bourgeoisie has ruled the coun These Unionists are part of try in defence of its own and the ruling class and the Tory foreign capital. The working establishment in Britain.

class of the Irish Republic, leading the small farmers, is By supporting them the from breaking the capitalist Labour government was pro- parties and moving into action viding strength to the British in its own interests. ruling class for its economic and political battles with the Prime Minister Lynch and working class. All those who do not oppose the sending of troops are col- imperialist laborating in this war of intervention. This raises the other side of the story which is necessary for working out a programme and strategy for the Irish wor- king class: the connection be- tween the struggle in Ireland and the class struggle in Britain. We shall return to this point. In the first of these articles we showed how the crisis pros- facing Prime Minister Lynch pects the Protestant Edward Carson revi land by bringing ab majority of Belfas shipbuilding were like a me neath the present which have been the firs South, s. coming to # t •xoranie toree pite frantic governi for wage-restrai threats or legislati Criminal Justice could lall tenance electricia Electricity Supply, a bitter struggle th end and won an ir per cent! Within a few w ing their workers won arson reviewing uister volunte Inging about the partitloning of Belfast workers (in and engineering) • a ume-bomo under. present situation, workers n the first to move. South, head with force. This year, des- c government appeals despite e-restraint, I legislation with the Bill which strikers, main- the of electricians the y Supply Board fought truggle through to the won an increase of 25 a few weeks, follow- building an approximate months. Other sec- now moving into tne the Tynagh mpany, having got its rich silver and pros WITn …The profits, has led by a two-month the men have re- -a-week increase and of a long ects grow struggle. itions where workers st of reland have in confi- gained improvement sunkenre increase the militancy impact of this labour ampaign, the govern- withdrew its legislation It will certainly political struggle e legislation. last three years, the mers have mounted le campaigns against er volunteers: he succeedo riltloning of the six Ulster c the land, 1923, the division despite the indem tions attached fully took the heat century-old countryside. capital and the put an intolerable the small small traders driven out by the investors, they are rupt in their thou year. On top of these lems in the class : the powerful Cath economic political influence places continue, fearful Class growing rejection authority youth. In the Labour Party Republic was comp a left' face, on 'socialisma. being their programme. Although turned out not to at all, what they their st modifying comply with the pr the working class. Recent recruits t party Cruise help liberals, deception. What they hope old nationalisn Catholicism, contain ern capitalism, we old nationalist the form a truly moder workers. Cruise Review', 37 May-l In like succeeded in he partition of Ire- settled division of the land, le indemnity condi- to it, success- the heat out of the agitation in the big banks has tolerable squeeze Like the farmers. the OI town, by the supermarket they are made bank- eir thousands every church. and its influence high ng the daily religious the Irish the to

COCAISI

party, Conor and other them

THIS

ney hope is this: the helped will not be able struggle, much of mod. these days lism, we should drop ationalist myths, and Ily modern reformist, ocratic party for the (See Conor 'New Left rving capitalist interests in Northern Ire.

People's Democracy in the North, with their perspective of a 'rationalized' capitalism in the North and an opening for reforms in the shape of civil rights. Now there is certainly plenty for reformists to get their teeth into (if they had any teeth) in the Republic of Eire.

The standard of living is, on official figures, less than 60 per cent of that in Britain and 20 per cent lower than that of the North. Even if we consider only the town workers, who are better off than the small farmers and agricultural workers, we find average earnings about £3 10s.

per week lower than in Britain.

As for the countryside, be- cause of differences in State subsidies and pricing policies, added of course to the poor quality of land in the West, production per acre annually is £19 on grass and milk output, with £59 in the compared North. It is worth giving a few other examples, because one big question comes up among Northern Irish workers, which will more and more be asked in the South also: what price a united Ireland under Lynch and the 'Green Tories' of the South ? When the Protestant worker.

in the North asks that ques- tion, he is not referring at all only (or even primarily) to the future of religious freedom or discrimination, but to the basic living and welfare standards of the workers. The Catholic worker in the North asks the same question.

But when they both 'ask' this question politically, anc ight for an alternative, jointl with the workers of the South —on that day the prospect of a united socialist Ireland opens up.

CONTINUED

TOMORROW

TWO FOR THE SHOW...

TV Review by Anna Tate That yearly act of aggression, which goes by the name of the Eurovision Song Contest, was perpetrated yet again on 400 million Europeans who tuned in to their television sets. The silent majority burst into song, or rather, their representa- tives in the world of pop burst into what, for lack of a better description, has been called song.

One could, of course, choose to deliberately whole ignore masturbatory exercise, but given those 400 million who certainly do not ignore it, perhaps one should attempt a close look at one of the intrinsic elements in the pleasure principle of the psychi- cally-lumpen middle-class.

Without in any way infringing on the pleasure principle, one can recognize that pop music and those who create it, reflect, way or another, the in one changes which go on in the world at large, and that they are sub- jected to the pressures of such change. This was illustrated to some extent by the Thames Television programme 'Whatever Happened Pan Alley?' (Tuesday, to Tin March 28). What the Eurovision Song Contest represents is the unctu- outpouring of the profes- ous sional dream peddlers—a com- mercial euphoria which very well serves the devious romanticism of those who hold middle-class values and would like to pretend to themselves that all is for the best in the best possible of all worlds. So much does this, the major stream of pop music, parrot the cultural norms of idiotic estab- lishment. Content that all to creative music have claims their long been lost, among ranks, in sentimentalized drivel.

the contest came Entrants in from capitalist nations of Europe, plus, needless to say, Yugoslavia.

Reflecting the hypocrisy of capi- talist societies which have long since destroyed the possibility of valid human love by basing all relationships on competition, the Eurovision Song Contest placed an overwhelming emphasis on idyllic love. From the time that the first entrant, Mary Roos of the stage with Germany took 'Nur die Liebe lässt uns leben' ('Only Love lets us live'), the scene was set for the sentimen- talism of the complacently vacu- ous. Carlos Mendes of Portugal took up the fight for distorted emotionalism with 'A Festa da Vida' ('The Joy of Living') which, without wishing to stretch felt the a political point, one exploited peasants of the Algarve might not entirely feel at one with. of like-minded spate 'artistes"" lowed Helen, and Joseph of Malta with 'L'Imhabba' Italy with 'The Days with 'Madly or Not at All' so on ... The prize went to 'victorious' Vicky Leandros of Luxembourg 'Apres Toi' ('After You')— for an inevitable saga of unrequited passion in which the young lady claimed an obsolute inability to live any longer after the depar- ture of her loved one, all this a loud and hearty up-beat which indicated that she was, in fact, only too alive and kicking.

As impresarios of the pseudo, this crowd took some beating.

Second Seekers Place went to the 'New who came to fame with to 'teach their aspiration the world to sing in perfect har- mony. Meanwhile, behind the scenes and concern of all this love' for the world, that usual brand commercial-pop, internecine of rivalry was raging as each singer's public relations man engaged in There battle with the others. is none so vicious as those who fight for column inches in the national press. Coming as it did in the wake of this Eurovision song-monger- ing, 'Whatever Happened to Tin Pan Alley?' did, at least, convey hard profit a glimmer of the and massive upheaval realities as change of (otherwise known style) which runs through the history of pop. Denmark Street was the pop highway with its own traffic-jam of sheet-music publishers in the and immediately post- pre-war war period, but it suffered a the like of Wall Street, crash trend began to when a new emerge in the 1950s and 1960s.

Denmark Street had been the launching-pad for such person- Ross Parker, Anne alities as Bonn. Ross Issy Shelton and in 1939, gained Parker had, his world-wide fame through 'There'll always be composition an England', which he had writ- ten in the anticipation that Hitler would declare war in June of that year. In the programme he seemed to be expressing some disappoint- ment that the Fuehrer did not which September, till move would have been in the best interests of the song! Anne Shelton also made it big as a result of the war with 'Lili Marlene', which was used to counter German propaganda! She saw Churchill as 'the great man' and was herself Churchillian not only in physical stature, but also in impact. After the war she con- tinued the nice militaristic tradi- tion with 'Lay Down Your Arms' - the opening line being-'My sweetheart is a soldier as hand- some as can be ... But they were soon over those halcyon days of Denmark Street bygones be bygone The Dost-war era charts with a did even the climb of 1 share index. whizz-kids Jure on freds, who Pal. viewed Tin that severe v lin hiro were demand was not for g but for arket, ene arun easy market, the went, to the vast promotion Paul Jones the rat-race jacked OT rVIne rO maKe o' in his own way. His groups such as The vinecar oer mirrors turmoil the illusion. Paul could the mental describing Song w ntovisior merchants his which 'He wcals noncasnoe Trying to get cover Jesus Christ approved, are troub But These Paul Top: Jones. Richard. n is to be found at singing, folk be bygones' ushered period boom, in their the epoch of • Sones climbed the chine of coup te speed out inflation Cliff Jones and the Mann- who was inter- w natever happened the verely limited. mercial success in an tor good music fruits of which but louds. romotion racker rat-race make his own music and that Flint, Who, etc. nal and an objective the various rmoil produced by boom could have been e mentality of the Contest drear latest record a crucifix and a get cover both wavs may not have are troubled days.' Jones. Above CHI Workers Press, Wo

EATS

'If you knew what was in it, you would not eat it' may be a truer saying than you think.

For the first time the US government has made public the amounts of contaminants it allows in processed foods.

If you have just eaten don't read on. The contaminants in- clude rat droppings, mould, flies and worms and can be found in anything from a fish steak to a bar of chocolate.

The US government said the permissible limit of contamina- tion-which it would strive to reduce still further — repre- sents a level below which the defect is both unavoidable under present technology and presents no health hazard.

'Few foods contain no natural or unavoidable de- fects,' the Food and Drug Ad- ministration (FDA) said. 'Even with modern technology, all defects in foods cannot be Foreign eliminated. material introduced into foods through the environment can be re- duced only by reducing their occurrence in the environ- ment.' The 'defect limits' or filth tolerance cover minute insect fragments, rodent droppings hair, and mould, bacteria, worms, flies' eggs and rot.

The food in which they can be found in varying degree in- clude chocolate, vegetables, fruit, eggs, fish, flour, spices, grains, cottee beans and jam.

Examples of the limits in- clude: four rodent hairs in 225 grams (eight ounces) of choco- late; 100 million bacteria per gram of dried eggs; five rodent pellet fragments or two pellets and detached rodent hair per 50 grams (two ounces) of corn- meal; and one rodent pellet per pint (half litre) of wheat. For many fruits, such as canned and frozen blackberries and raspberries, there wås an.

insect level of four larvae per 500 grams (17 ounces). Government spokesman said: "There is nothing new in all this, except that we are making public, them the spokesman said. 'There will still be a lot of misunderstanding, of course, and we are bound to be asked "Why do you allow any sort of contamination?" 'But the point is that if we put an absolute ban on all forms of contaminated food right now we'd probably starve to death,' he said.

BENT

As the election race starts to hot up, the Nixon administra- tion starts to reek with various 'embarrassments'. Pross, Wedneeday April 5, 1872 PAGE 9 First of all there was the ITT affair in which it is 'alleged' the giant telephone money into company slipped Republican funds in order that anti-trust suits were with- drawn. The allegation against ITT is, of course, a monstrous libel on a great and philanthropic Nixon's" aides have firm-as been saying all along. case has But now another come on the scene. It involves Mr C. Arnholt Smith, a long- time friend of Nixon and one of his most influential financial backers. Smith has just come under investigation by the federal government for possible security laws violation. The powerful Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is looking into certain trans- actions over the last three years involving Smith's West- gate-California Corporation.

The SEC is probing why Westgate entered into two transactions totalling £25m rescinded the deals in It is 'unusual' for a firm to undertake such a major trans- action on the last day of its fiscal year and later reverse the decision. has interests in Westgate banking, mining and fishing as taxi, bus and airline well as services. It has attracted atten- tion in the financial community because it switched independ- ent auditors for four consecu- tive years. Smith, who controls West- gate with 52 per cent of its voting stock, is to testify be- fore officials of the Civil Aero- nautics Board. He will be a hearing on an witness at a application by Golden West Airlines, of Newport Beach, to acquire financially Calif, troubled Los Angeles Air- ways, a helicopter service.

Smith has become em- broiled in a growing contro- versy over alleged Justice De- partment favouritism toward the Republican party's financial backers in San Diego. 'Life' has charged-and magazine the Justice Department has denied-that the Nixon admi- nistration sought to neutralize criminal investigations involv- ing Smith's friends. The SEC probe into Smith's business interests started at the staff level some weeks ago, it was learned. More recently it has been formally authorized by a closed-door vote of the SEC commissioners. There is speculation in the Californian about press whether President Nixon might be able to see his way clear to assist his embattled friend.

is a devout Mr Nixon Quaker.

LEON TROTSKY :

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Fighting the Tories' Rent Bill PAGE 10 Workers Press, Wednesday Ap Charles Colquhoun: Passed motion in bra THE BREAK-UP of British capitalism and the movement of youth against it brought a plea yesterday for support for 'the last bastion of responsi- bility the school. Ray Holden, new president of National Association the Schoolmasters, warned his annuai conference that unless teachers could win their pupils confidence. inevitable anarchi will result School being shaken 1o was its very foundations because it was the subject of ill-considered attacks from all sides' "made it Holden clear that youth moving away from were old 'standards' and beginning to assert their independence.

'They are the victims of the acquisitive society, whose stand- ards of success are measured by the two cars, the boat and the peacock on the lawn. ... THE WORKING-CLASS child's educational chances have not im- proved relatively in 30 years, Labour MP-and one-time Edu- cation. told the Guild of Teachers of Backward Children yesterday.

We now know that the working-class child and the middle-class child whose meas- ured ability is equal at three years begin to diverge at that age,' he said. Social disadvantage and an educational practice which de- liberately coaches for failure, were the twin causes of what had been euphemistically referred to by Education Secretary Margaret nesday April 5, 1972

BY PHILIP WADE

MANY

TENANTS

the subsidies they've had through- are the years. quickly realizing that the people seem to be ior- private tenants getting ToaT A Te 'struggle against the Tories to be far worse off when they decontrolled

ICAL

ycai. Call and their 'fair rents' Bill shoving lanco es bathroom toilet and putting must involve the mobiliza- he rents up to f12. like, be- what it'll tion of the trade union

• NIIU

ishen pay Cause oons week for a kitchen bedroom movement. before I moved into flat. 'As far the rent reDales Some have already taken like going back to concerned ls the old means tests. Before you can action through their trade they get one to know what w allt: union branches, demanding You Ve gor n your nouse inat can action from their leaders.

once in Scoi when üDileu ro •aLONa Charles Colquhoun lives on it'll never - and I swear assistance happee Tories ailll an estate in Chiswick near the Tories never climb Great West Road, London. He down. that's for sure. Ine probiem seems to be getting someone is also an AUEW shop steward lead the working class against them.

Addressograph - Multilith's 'We had at chance with the miners' If Labour MPs har „sliike. Acton factory. way, instead •ackeo them .a to would never saying have •We put motion through my we'd happened been branch on called power. the rents assue. Tories could have wen i unink me "n na ¡nionc atte buane been ousted. national strike of the 'And

TUC

secretary Victor Labour councillors Feather cilly found himselt in America were prosecuted rerusing wnen the strike was on instead of implement the proposals. being here to call everyone 'If the goes up fl we'll be Charles rent now being faced with 65.62 week. Of course the vital blylls anotuel quesuon. cerenoine his right to work.. In September his nci ie Lns desuroy council housing. They don't factory closes down with want operation being moved to Hemel Hempstead.

on n cncr the working class benehit from

FROM STEPHEN JOHNS

"Iher are preved upon by the

MIRRLEES

engineering is media operating largely on blleis. behalf of the i plants in- bombarded volved in the greater Man- t nCy «l l C from morning night with UnIl chester engineering battle for the simple message Grab!' shorter hours more money, Consderation of other peoples feelings and toleration of their and longer holidays. conspicuously were workers began The 2,000 Stockport the sit-in al wouth were subiected, he added.

plant last Wednesday when Teachers clearly worried about the changes among youth, management refused to pay them if the ban on piecework are faced with no better prospect than the dole was not ended. queue when they leave school, had begun murriees men but ,as tar as the NAS is con working day rate the previous John Dougherty: Mirrless more Cernec. "nswer Monday with together convenor that throughout the Manchester area remained The lads come day rate lacuic is tactically better. school caimed Holden. effective way choking off in for a 24-hour stint every three 'If we fail to understand the Under the piecework production. problems surrounding days. They are together, boys 10 To6 Ssei. tinie moncy, and guris we teach. Coll- managements together spent nuge offer and under- sympatny sophisticated costing sums standing, if we do not succeed in involving confidence. their spirits up. winning their inevi- computers anarch wa.resultene believed. therefore abandon had told me a tew payment by result, this elaborate ago inis wouia nappen i could becomes not have believed it.'

COSUY

coulbllicill totall! John there use eçs. workers estimate their output" current basic the rate for me ccadons of fl9 a week 'I think obviously the miners' skile• enee There are many men has had an effect victory on consider this low rate not the whole mood of the working class. the miners worlI dl wye. saw win a. victory from thiś government are content to produce a coupie and it encouraged workers every- components 'Stockpor day. Output slumps and Thatcher 'slower learners' in the secondary school. wnere

UCS

has made Manchester emplovers have tried

.TOIS

workers refuse to sit-down and to suspend workers. After correctly pointing out This is when the occupations accept the gate might The cass dad c drae cbccnan occur. the done Hlavc niu. system, Short; of course, goes no Mirrlees convenor John oi course. lais Is.nor atrosener further. Dougnerty tola me wny the men had adopted this tactic and what ment has He came up with two reform- move- course this ist and Utopian "solutions': he thought about the tactory desve Surere Was Lakille TRev stoDas. we t 'First there im farour of one 'I think first one should realize to seriously consider what steps. siderable titt in favour thae-herse upe ione rer ot rine will take to restrict their he child, said. disadvantared take-overs. trying freedom.' referring to allocation of money who has worked To rin ure plant. men are onn. on education. Mirrlees six jears, not prepared shut out believes the Secondly, he called on higher of the We don't want struggle has gone gate. thing- educational establishments of the usual -the He points to the 18 firms who repeal cur •owi mer cosic so more can Tew olo Talteuis lo une coloane nave soneo aereeests mvovıg devoted to the three-year-old wet picketing at the gates. three points claim. child. 'The way we are doing it is "The Tories are beginning to get what they want, setting worker against worker with six chasing every job. 'But I think the working class something from has learned the 1920s and 1930s. They are not pre- pared to see those conditions come back. 'Now you've got all these sit-ins, something which has never hap- pened before. It could lead to a big movement against the Tories.

If all this hatred over rents, prices and the trade unions was brought to the surface, there would be a big fight against the govern- ment. 'Tenants' associations can't de- feat the government on their own.

They stand to become a bit isolated it they try. 'What we need is the backing of the trade unions and Labour MPs.

Then we could get somewhere.

'In the 1920s we didn't have a lot to fight for. Now we have these so- called little luxuries like TVs, decent houses and cars. If the Tories mean to take these away, there'll be an enormous fight.

'The TUC never put up any fight against the Industrial Relations Bill and kept sending round petitions as if they would do any good.

'It's up to them. If they give a lead, workers will follow. If not, people tend to sit back and wait which is dangerous. And the Labour Party needs a shake-up.

There don't seem to be any real socialists leading it any more!

are in the Engineering Employers' Federation, which has specifically instructed its members to give nothing on hours and holidays.

Neither has he any strong criticism of the decision to abandon the claim nationally.

'I think at local level we will get more than we could have nationally. The main sticking the employers point of is on hours, but I think this is a vital part of the claim. 'Raging - inflation will soon swallow up a £3 or even £4 increase. But cut in hours a stays for good. The employers worried about this are very demand. If we win this in Man- chester, it will be the green light for every other area.

He is disappointed however, over cne aspect of the fight— the retreat in Sheffield.

"There was one stage, I believe, when it looked as if Sheffield was cut in front. I think they even had a resolution forward for a district-wide strike. Nothing seems to have come of this.

hap- Obviously something has pened there. It is a pity; joint action by Sheffield and Man- chester powerful Would have been a against blow the employers. • 'We have seen at Sharston's engineering that at least one employer is prepared to use the law against workers. 'All of them are using the threat of redundancies. This issue of unemployment is some- thing I have thought about a lot. The employers say that they can only give more money if we pay for it in unemployment.

This to me is a sham argument.

I think if we got redundancy notices we should send them back en bloc and consider action.

'We are all expecting, anyway, the long awaited pick-up in the and the blossoming- economy out of business.' • But happen suppose this does not 'Then we would be in for a slump. We would obviously have to look very seriously at how we fought it.'... ... • . .

TRANSPORT and shop because agency of the pressure the T&GWU can bring General Workers' Union bear through its draymen to members. chiefs are to be chal- The case has national import- ance for three reasons: lenged for the legal right to represent public-house • This is the first agency-shop before application to come the NIRC. Should the managers in the Allied court refer the case the Commission to on Breweries group. Industrial Relations, trade union- ists will watch carefully to see if the TUC advises the T&GWU to The challengers, who have give evidence there. registered themselves as a trade union under the Tories' • If the Association wins at Industrial Relations Act, are the leaders of a two-year-old organization with a claimed membership of 10,000. And within days of the T&GWU being fined £5,000 for contempt, they have taken the matter to the National Indus- trial Relations Court. The National Association of Licensed House Managers wants

BY AN INDUSTRIAL REPORTER

bargaining unit and agency shop under the unions Act for the 2,000 managers in TWENTY-THREE men have been Allied group. It is a test case.

tion firm of Hill Construction Com Having negotiated already shop with small voluntary Eastleigh, Hampshire, for taking p Brain, brewer, Wales S. A. the Association intends establish union recognition. its control throughout the industry. The AUEW (Constructional In the Birmingham area, how- their Section) is backing ever, the organizes picketing action. large number of managers, both in the Ansell's section of Allied The most significant aspect of and Mitchell's and Butler.

this dispute is the management's the insistence on the use of Since Allied want to negotiate Industrial Relations Act.

on a national basis, it has refused to grant the Association approached When by shop national sole bargaining unit and steward George Hendry over the agency shop. question of union recognition, management refused the request.

Bass Charrington, which owns Mitchell's, of the negotiates regionally. It insisted the use on But refused Department of Employment and it, too, has an The daily paper that dads the fight against the Torles. £20.28 for 12 months (312 Issues) {10.14 for 6 months (156 Issues) {5.07 for 3 months (78 issues) If you want to take Workers Press twice a week the rates are: £1.56 for 3 months (24 issues) £6.24 for 12 months (96 issues) Fill in the form below NOW and send to: CIrculation Dept., Workers Pross, 186a Clapham High St., London, SWá 7UG. I would like to take out a subscription to Workers Press.

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Name Address Allied, similar cases are expected to follow at Mitchell's and else- where. The floodgates could also open in other industries.

The granting of an agency shop at Allied would pose the T&GWU with a difficult problem; defiance of a NIRC order by its members could lay it open to an unlimited fine. Whatever the outcome of the case, it is one more example of union leaders, Piled up by the the pressure refusal to defeat the Act before it became law.

ave been sacked from the construc- ion Company (Engineers) Limited at taking part in a one-day strike for Productivity to conciliate in the matter. Further, the men have been with new presented contracts which list selected 'rights' of employees under the Act. The men have refused to sign these contracts. Their union is not registered, following the TuC non-co-operation policy and the men gave notice of a one-day token strike for March 27.

On returning to work the ^ dis- following day they were missed. The dismissal notices are believed to have been prepared before the strike. Within a day, the men saw their jobs adver- tised on local television.

The men have a meeting with their union's area official today to discuss further action.

BY AN INDUSTRIAL REPORTER

SEVENTY AUEW toolmakers at Smith's Industries, Cricklewood, London, are in the third day of their official strike. So far the company has refused to discuss their claim for a £6 which rise, has been under negotiation since last December, plus the national AUEW claim for £6 and a 35-hour week.

The strikers have agreed to negotiate on a minimum rise of £8. By including the national claim into their local claim the men say they are attempting to bring their wages into line with those of other skilled workers in the area. Smith's management have made an all-round offer which the men say would mean a rise of approxi- mately 17 per cent for unskilled workers, but only about 6f per cent for toolmakers. The strike committee statement says: 'We have been forced into this position by management's own admission that the only way quality of to maintain their instruments and at the same time remain competitive is to depress wages! Bill Humblestane, strike com- mittee press secretary, and Frank Jervis, a member of the press committee, were both agreed: 'Like the miners, we are having to deal with government policy.'

Workera Proze, Wednoeday April 5, 1872 PAGE 11 TV

BBC 1

10.55 Magic roundabout. Boomph with naya jeevan. 1.00-1.25 Disc a dawn.

Camberwick roundabout. 5.50 News and weather.

6.00 NATIONWIDE.

6.50 TOM AND JERRY. 'Life With Tom'.

7.00 SPY TRAP. 'The Contact".

7.25 STAR TREK. 'Catspaw'.

8.15 LORD PETER WIMSEY: CLOUDS OF WITNESS.

9.00 NINE O'CLOCK NEWS and weather.

9.20 SPORTSNIGHT WITH COLEMAN.

10.50 24 HOURS.

11.20 THE LONGEST WAVE. 'The Severn Bore'.

11.45 Weather.

BBC

17:30 NEW PROS and weather.

8.00 8.10

AN ALIVE

MER TO EM They. Martin Luther King.

MUNIGOMERY TO

10.20 NEWS ON 2 and weather. 10.25 MONTGOMERY TO MEMPHIS continued.

ITV

1.05-12.13 Out of school. 1.25 Outlook. 2.25 Motor racing 3.00 Houseparty. 3.15 Simon Locke. 3.45 Edgar Wallace. 4.40 Hatt town. 4.55 Get this! 5.20 Tightrope. 5.50 News.

6.05

CARTOON TIME

SMITH FAMILY. State Witness.

1 r- 6.35

CROSSROADS.

THIS

IS YOUR LIFE.

CORONATI

ON

STREET.

CADE'S COUNTY. A Gun for Billy 9.00 CALLAN. None of Your Business.

.00

NEWS

THI

TOP.

11.30

WRESTLING.

PROP SOUNAL

12.00 WHAT THE PAPERS SAY. Bill Grundy.

12.15

THE WORTH EXPERIMENT.

REGIONAL TV

CHANNEL:

4.25 Tea break: 4:55 room. Homoer 6:00 News. News. 4.55 London

6.00 UTV

London. weatner 6.10 Towards the year 2000. reports. 6.15. What's on? 6.35 8.35 ondon. 7.00 Treasure -ondon. 10.30. Glen to glen. hunt. London. 10.30 11.00 vresting. 10.32 meet 100 ends meet. Wrestling. 11.45

YORKSHIRE;

Epilogue. News, weather. don. 2.30 afternoon. .00

WESTWARD:

Channel 3.15 Jobs garden. 3.40 Honeybun. News. Simon Locke. 4.10 News. 4.15 Cross Loads. Hatty 6.00 11.44 town. News, London. 6.00 Calendar, 7.00 lenge. London. 10.30

SOUTHERN:

•a breaks 3000 Alexander Wrestling. .o1. Dangerman.. Houseparty. 4.15 house. London. 6.00 rossroads.

GRANADA:

Lon- 6.30 don. 2.25 Wallace challenge. 7.00 London. 3.30 Yoga. action. 4.10 News Place. 4 55 Lon- 4.41 6.00 What's on? Innenters. challenge. 7.00 Lon-

HARLECH:

11.05-12.14 Arthur. 2.55 Phoenix 2.40 11.00 What Talking Hes. 3.50 Ugliest town. Tinkertain 4.30

TYNE TEES:

11.05-12.15 Lon Crossroads. 4.55 6,01 West. don. 2.30 Women 3.00 London. Report 6.15 Report Wales. 6.30 Odd and 7.00 10.30 the house 2,10 New: 3.40 couple. -ondon Simon Locke. News. 4.15 Alexander. 11.00 wrestlin Mad 4.40 11.45 movies. vosorodds. MaNd Weather. wish. 6.00 To

HTV

Nest day 6.30 University chal as abore except: 7.00 10.30 6.15-6.30 Report West. enge. Wales and HTV Cymru/ Wrest- voorer. Wales as above except: 3.50 ling. 11.45 News. 12.00 Epi- Air logue. Hamdden 1.15 4.30 mawr. 6.01-6.15 Y dydd.

SCOTTISH:

11.05-12.15 Lon-

ANGLIA: 11.05-12.13

3.15 Soa Perky. 3.30 Pinky and •on. 3.00 Houseparty. 3.45 Crossroads. 4.10 Date- 4.15 News 6.20 Cartoon. 6.30 Plus ine. 4.18 Cartoons. Romper 7.00 10.30 Uni. I all. 4.55 London. 6.00 room. versity challenge. Sport Anglia. London. 6.35 11.30 Late call. 11.35 Wrest.

ADOU

ling. 10.30 Alexander. 17.00 wrest ling.

ATV

MIDLANDS:

11.05-12.13

GRAMPIAN:

11.06-12.14 Lon- Yoga. 3.41 News. 3.45 Women* London. 3.10 •on. Horoscope. 3.45 Women. 4.10 today. Jimmy Stewart. 4.70 Mrs Muir. 4.40 4.40 Enchanted house. 4.55 and ghost News, 4.55 -ondon weather Gєso•• Island. 6.10 Grampian Secret service. 6.35 …Lone on 6.00 Today. 6.35 London. London. 10.30 Branded. 11.00 11.00 Wrest- Vrestlins 11.45 Accessible 10.30 Alexander Arctic. 12.10 Epilogue ling.

Thatcher visit and pay retreat angers teachers PAGE 12 Workers Press, Wednesday Apri DOCKS SHOP stewards yesterday sent a letter to Jack Jones, general secre- tary of the Transport and General Workers' Union, urging him not to pay the £5,000 fine imposed on the union by the National Industrial Relations Court. The union now has exactly a week left to show the court why it should not pay the fine, which was imposed for contempt of an order to stop 'blacking' Heaton's Transport (St Helens) Ltd at Liverpool docks. Fairclough, Heaton's Harry traffic said yesterday manager, that the company had sent no lorries. to the docks since yes- morning's post-holiday terday return to work. No decision about when vehicles would next be sent had yet been taken, he said. 'We are waiting for Mr Heaton.' is over The Liverpool row firms' refusal to sign an agree- T&GWU docks and ment with road-transport stewards making the packing and unpacking of cargo-containers dockers' work.

NIRC

Next Wednesday, the will issue its final verdict on whether the blacking of the com- unfair industrial is an pany practice under the Industrial Relations Act. Such a decision could lay the T&GWU open to an unlimited fine if the blacking continued. In London, however, the threat dock strike appears of a national to have been postponed. The stevedoring firm of T. Wallis Smith Coggins has given 40 dockers a month's reprieve from being returned to the port's unattached labour pool. port stewards' national The committee, which was the body which wrote to Jones yesterday.

strike had threatened prolonged action from Saturday if the return occurred. Party spokesman IRISH Labour on Ulster Cruise Dr Conor O'Brien, said in Dublin yesterday.

men and women of 'I hope the Andersontown say to the IRA "Get out and stay out". 'I believe this is the only way we will see any reduction in the killing in N Ireland.' O'Brien supported Cardinal Conway's appeal for peace. 'I think the Cardinal was very wise not to talk to the IRA. A meeting would only make these people inflate their claims

LATENEWS

NEWS DESK

01-720 2000

CIRCULATION

01-622 7029 PRATT Engineering Corporation, owner of the Omes-Faulkners Ltd, Colnbrook factory, Bucks, which sacked 66 men on March 24, has announced 1971 profits before tax at £502,437. claimed that The company deteriorating profits were forcing them to rationalize their plant and manpower. Corporation chairman G. _K.

that announced Galliers-Pratt profits had 'recovered' last year atter reaching only £257,739 in 1969-1970. There will be a meeting for shareholders at the Dorchester Hotel, London, on April 28 at noon. Registered as a newspaper at the Post Ofice. Published -Workers Press, 186a Clapham High Street, London,

SW4 7UG.

Lta. (TU), Printed by Plough Press 180b Clapham High Street. London,

SW4 7UG.

aaday Aprll 5, 1972

BY OUR CORRESPONDENT

THE NATIONAL Union of T terday left it to their leadi member Max Morris to leac opposition to the union's pay cl Morris made repeated per- sonal attacks on the movers of an amendment to refer back executive's pay pro- posals. 'If the executive were to offer Utopia, Shangrila, or a pot of as a salary' it would be gold opposed, he claimed. It's a winner- help support the winner,' Morris concluded.

Rising feeling against the Tory cuts was reflected in the meeting unprecedented protest during the speech to conference of Education Secretary Margaret Thatcher. Two hundred delegates left the conference hall to discuss Thatcher's blocking of reorganiza-

BY AN INDUSTRIAL REPORTER

A THREE-PRONGED campai teachers is to be launched sho of Scientific, Technical and M further and give them a kind of recognition.' Conway's weekend appeal for peace and his attack on the IRA has been savagely criticized by Rory O'Bradaigh, president of the Fein: Provisional Sinn • "In his excursion into politics, • Cardinal all the influence the can command has been thrown behind direct British rule, just as his predecessors had urged successfully the acceptance of the disastrous treaty of surrender in 1921.

WEATHER

ENGLAND, except the SW, will hat sunny periods and showers.

Wales, N Ireland SW England, and parts of W Scotland will have isolated showers at first but later it will become cloudy with rain in places. The rest of Scotland will have occasional showers, heavy places, but also sunny periods.

Temperatures will be near normal everywhere. for Thursday and Outlook Strong Rain at times. Friday: winds. Temperatures near normal. on of Teachers' executive yes- ir leading Communist Party to lead a vicious attack on 's pay claim. tion for comprehensive educa- tion. As the delegates staged their a counter-demonstra- walk-out, tion was staged by Tory elements in the union. applauded as They stood and Thatcher appeared on the plat- form. Union president Harry Allison told her: 'I think I can assure you that you must be in no doubt about the feeling of the vast mojority of members of this conference.' Thatcher's Allison said after that he was 'proud and speech grateful' for the way the majority of delegates had behaved.

campaign to recruit university hed shortly by the Association and Managerial Staffs. Last week the 230,000- strong union held a planning conference in London .to discuss the issues facing their academic members and potential recruits. An ASTMS policy statement is expected shortly. At Lancaster, left-wing union member Dr David Craig has been suspended from his post as a senior English lecturer of the pending ameeting University Council on May 2.

If the council decides to sack 'disruption' alleged him-for violation of the university charter breach of contract-the and entire ASTMS membership at the college may strike. Backing is expected from staff and studenis elsewhere. It is in this context that the forthcoming policy statement is expected to lay heavy emphasis on the links between the univer- sities and the state. It will offer teachers a trade union form of organization as opposed to the staff-association approach which has been more' prevalent up to now. The union's recruiting drive will stress: • The need for more democratic control of both university govern- ment and finance: • Universities' present elitist in- of take--only per cent students being drawn from working-class the homes-and need to change this: and • Demands for big improvements in wages and conditions. The union is thought to believe academic salaries are that least £1,000 a year below what they should be. Thatcher: Welcomed by right wing teachers the During the pay debate it was Floor speakers attacked executive's acceptance of derisive from a remark by apparent Walter Cray- and its abandonment executive member pay scales of basic scale unify all that the leadership was not ton teachers. forward putting any strategy to its limited Delegates referred to the execu- achieve even pay tive's long history of retreat. This demands. throws into serious question the He hoped a pay decision could leadership's professed determina- be reached before Christmas, tion to fight for a satisfactory when there is a more generous spirit. basic scale benefiting all teachers.

MORE than 1,000 assembly-line strikers was for £1.50 the three higher grades and £1.75 for workers English Electric's at Lancashire Rd plant, Liverpool, the three lower. Ray Edwards, national execu- yesterday declared support for 450 workers on official strike over tive member of the Clerical and Administrative Workers' Union, a pay claim. Lodged a year the claim told the assembly-line workers ago, is for increases of £6 a week.

that he was trying to arrange Production has been halted by with the meeting management. The company had agreed third the strike - now in its to re- week-and.. most. of the 5,000 open talks which broke down in London a fortnight ago. labour force have been laid off.

750 white-collar staff are still More than half of the clerical working, however. The company's last offer to the workers affected are women.

SOCALISTHE

CAPTO WORK

DEAL TO LONDON

YOUNG SOCIALISTS

WE DEMAND THE

RIGHT TO WORK

SWANSEA TO LONDON

1972

WEEDOND THE

PRUNG SOCIALISTS

RIGHT TO WORK

PERPOOL TOLONDO

VEDANAND THE

IT TO WO

YOUNG SOCIALISTS 12th ANNUAL CONFERENGE Saturday & Sunday April 8/9 Grand Hall, The Spa Dance to 'BRAVE NEW WORLD' Saturday night 8 pm also see a star-studded show Cost approximatoly €4.50. For tickets apply to John Simmance, National Secretary, 186 a Clapham High Street, London, SW4 7UG Please send me details/tickets of the Scarborough Conference.

I enclose

NAME

ADDRESS